Farmers say 'backwards spring' was good news for strawberries

Vermont saw a wetter and cooler than average spring this year, and while many businesses that rely on summer weather bemoaned the rain, strawberry growers in the state welcomed it.

Strawberries need about an inch of rain a week, and don’t require a tremendous amount of sunny weather, according to Eugenie Doyle of Last Resort Farm in Bristol.

A good, cold winter to kill pests followed by just the right amount of rain means her family’s organic farm is seeing very little mold and powdery mildew, making for the best strawberry crop in several years.

More from Vermont Public: Vermonters bemoan slew of rainy weekends

“I think all the growers in the state are pretty happy with this season, and there are going to be a lot of happy people,” Doyle said.

Richard Hourihan of Cabot Smith Farm grows about eight acres of strawberries at 1,500 feet. He says the rain was no problem at his Cabot farm.

“They’re growing fine,” he said in mid-June. “They’re a little behind because of the weather. You know, the heat’s not there, but they’re coming along.”

Hourihan has noticed in recent years early season wildfire smoke has blocked sunlight and thermal energy from reaching the soil, which delays his crops. But this year, he says, things are looking promising, and it’s just one of many wild cards Vermont farmers are learning to deal with as the climate changes.

A ‘backwards spring’

Strawberry season in Vermont runs from about mid-June through early July, with berries ripening later in Northern parts of the state.

Climate change, which is largely caused by burning fossil fuels, is shaking up Vermont’s historic weather patterns.

That means more heat waves like the one we experienced this week, as well as earlier thaws and later frosts — both phenomena that affect farms in the state.

State climatologist Lesley-Ann Dupigny-Giroux says warming isn’t the only trend scientists are keeping an eye on, and this year was a good example of one that can be vexing for people whose work relies on the weather.

It’s called “backwards spring.”

As winters warm, Vermont is seeing earlier thaws and stretches of warm weather in March, April and May. Then, in June, we may see stretches of very cool, wet weather — even a late frost or two.

“It’s one of those things that we've been seeing a little bit more of recently, and it's something that I suspect that we will continue to see more of,” said Dupigny-Giroux.

Vermont and the North Country have always experienced big fluctuations in our weather patterns, but Dupigny-Giroux says those fluctuations are only becoming more unpredictable with climate change.

“It's not just temperature,” she said. “It's not just how much rain you got, but it's also things like: did some places — whether they're the low lying places, but also the mountain tops — did they get snow? Did you get a lot of cold outbreaks of air coming down from parts of the Canadian provinces? Were there certain types of frontal systems that moved through?”

Farmers adapt

Melissa Mazza, who co-owns Mazza’s Fruit and Vegetable Farm in Colchester, says even the early heat wave Vermont saw this week didn’t hurt her thriving berry crop.

“The season is definitely not over yet — the late berries are just starting to turn and that was probably with the help of the hotter days,” she said.

Diligent picking helped them get by without much plant stress.

Back in Bristol, Eugenie Doyle says she’s watched Vermont’s climate change in the 40-plus years she’s been farming in Addison County. When she started out, Vermont had perfect springs for strawberries, every year, like clockwork.

“I’m not a meteorologist or a climate scientist,” she said. “But we now have tremendous fluctuation and unpredictability. I think they call it ‘climate chaos.’ And that really is my experience.”

That can be hard to navigate and can make plants “grumpy,” Doyle said. But, she added,it also makes plentiful years like this one even sweeter.